Ph.D.

Dr. Shavali Shaik

Dr. Shavali, a leading scientist from the world renowned Harvard Medical Center has been awarded with several national and international awards including Research Associate-ship award from Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA, International science award from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Shavali has unique expertise in the areas of neurobiology and neurodegenerative diseases. He demonstrated, for the first time, that endogenously produced dopamine-derived neurotoxins can cause dopamine neuron death in Parkinson’s disease models. He has also shown that alpha-synuclein accumulates in the mitochondria of alpha-synuclein over-expressing cells under oxidative stress conditions. His studies provided evidence that alpha-synuclein accumulation causes mitochondrial defects and ultimately lead to demise of dopamine neurons in Parkinson’s disease. He also demonstrated that growth factors like IGF-1 can protect dopamine neurons from neurotoxin-induced oxidative stress.